Main Street Lending Program
On April 30, the Federal Reserve announced new details on the Main Street Lending Program including lowering the minimum loan size to $500,000 to enable more small businesses to benefit from the program. It also expanded program eligibility to include companies with up to 15,000 employees or $5 billion in annual revenues, limited the application of the facilities’ “specific support” provisions so that fewer companies are excluded and clarified that pass-through businesses’ distributions do not exclude them from the program.
Loans will be offered to small and medium-sized businesses through three venues: the Main Street New Loan Facility, the Main Street Expanded Loan Facility and the newly announced Main Street Priority Loan Facility. The maximum loan size is $25 million for the new and priority facilities and $200 million for the expanded facility, all subject to the borrower’s existing outstanding and undrawn available debt and its 2019 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. A comprehensive FAQ document is also available.
More information can be found on the Federal Reserve’s Main Street page as it becomes available. You can also learn more about the Main Street program in this overviewfrom the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).
The Main Street Lending Program is separate from the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program, which is primarily designed for companies with fewer than 500 employees. Companies may qualify for both programs. Learn more at the SBA website here.